Vientiane: down time

Wednesday November 19, 2008, 20 km (12 miles) – Total so far: 721 km (448 miles)

We fly home tomorrow morning. Today is errands day. Find boxes. Wash bikes, pack bikes and try to fit in eating, massages, shopping and sightseeing.

We had the company of Michel, a world traveler on a trike at breakfast, and I wished I had followed him some kilometers out of town just to see the reaction on people’s faces. He was heading to Thailand via the Friendship Bridge and eventually Bangkok. He has handled bandits before, so grumpy anti bicycle Thai customs and immigration should be a piece of cake.

Like his trike and trailer there’s long address at, http://tour-du-monde-en-tricycle.blogs-de-voyage.fr

another round the world bikes in Vientiane

First time visitors to the largest city in Laos will notice that prices are much higher than in neighbouring countries. More so if they’ve been used to longer stays, say in Thailand or Cambodia. Almost all consumer goods are imported from Thailand or China.

Being hungry cyclists, we try not to quibble too much about food prices, we need lots of it ! Then there’s the drinks. We were lucky to stay in guest houses where drinking water was supplied freely. On the longer hill climbing days, we drank more than we ate. It was difficult to resist the array of cold bottled drinks in the fridges of those small road side shacks along the road.

Probably the greatest expense were the guest houses. The Vientiane ones cost the most, averaging $25 and above. My quibble here is that the exact same establishment listed prices of $15 for the same room, last year. If you get to Vientiane, late in the day, like most cyclists do, be aware that rooms fill up quickly and most places have a take it or leave it attitude, at their not so good value prices.

The quality and variety of food in this town comes in a close second after Luang Prabang. There’s French of course, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese and even Lao. At KKC we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. Vientiane has the added attraction of a small Chinatown, which means just more food choices late into the night.

Shocked by higher than average prices, it’s not surprising that some cyclists just head out across the Friendship Bridge over to Thailand just 24 kms away.

To console ourselves, we remind each other that, everything back home costs a lot, lot more, period. We change the remainder of our US dollars which used to trade at the princely rate of 10300 kip to a dollar, back in 05. It hovers around 8500 kip now.

 

I’ve got so many blessings to count for on this trip, mostly friendship and laughter on the road, the graciousness and hospitality of the Lao people, arriving home in one piece (camera excepted) and just plain ol good timing.

The chaos at Bangkok’s Swamp Bunny airport was postponed by 3 weeks just for us.

Route 13 is described in some tourist brochures and guide books as the ‘Royal Road’ between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. I don’t know why yet, but Royal does sound much better than just Route 13.

In between these 2 must see destinations, you can fly (done that already), take a bus or van (did that on one 22 km uphill stretch) or like us cycle down, and up the only road linking the two towns. And what a journey this has turned out to be.

Looking back at 3000 images, I’ve realised that the essence of a good bicycle tour makes plodding around on two wheels a secondary afterthought. Yes it’s a means of transport, but sweat, sunburn and aching butt aside, your senses, mind and eyes are stimulated and enriched far beyond any monetary value. Just ask ol’ blue eye below. He never misses a blink.

To Vientiane: by the back door

Tuesday November 18, 2008, 95 km (59 miles) – Total so far: 701 km (436 miles)

School's out near Thalat

I left Thalat still wondering where the mythical lakeside village of Na Nam was. It’s highly possible it was a few kms north east out of the Thalat market, and not across that narrow bridge on Route 10 towards Vientiane. That led to the dam and the crazily steep hill to a single resort, the Longngum View.

*A post trip check on Google Earth, LP’s Cycling Guide and other sources point to the lakeside village of Na Nam, just after the steep 1.8 km climb. Ah, well.

Come to think of it, KG / LHT 3 went out on his own in that direction, I, LHT 1 was too dazzled by the lights of Thalat, and Alvin had sent Team Belguim to the Longngum view, saying that we’ll join them shortly.

Miscommunication all around and complacency setting in from riding together for some time. It happens sometimes, and the 5 of us had a good laugh about it when we regrouped, where else but in the shade of a small eatery 15 kms from Thalat.

Riding south from Phon Hong to Vientiane is a much shorter 70 kms. The detour to Thalat via Route 10 added one nasty hill and about another 25 kms more, but the relatively quiet road up to the Tha Ngon bridge 24 kms from the Lao capital seems to be a favourite among cyclists. The many scenic bridge crossings and guesthouses along the way make this a ‘safe’ road, in case you might want to call it quits early in the day. I cannot vouch for the traffic nor quality of Route 13 from Phon Hong to Vientiane mainly because I’ve not seen, much less ridden it.

 

Our guest house is close to Chinatown and we ride some more to get there. Fortunately for us we have our rooms booked, and were hoping that there would be at least one more for our Belgian friends. No deal. Sadly we parted ways again as they rode off toward the Mekong riverside to check out some hotels, only to bump into each other during dinner. They’ve got further travels to do, to Southern Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

If we did the same, I suspect the locks to our front doors back home would be changed before our return and all our bikes held hostage.

We arranged to have a farewell dinner the next night.

The finish line in Vientiane

 

Luang Prabang: Part 1

Friday November 7, 2008, 12 km (7 miles) – Total so far: 46 km (29 miles)

!st class service from a 3rd world airline

Vientiane’s Japanese built Wattay airport is just 4 to 5 kms away from town. With our boxes ditched in Nong Khai, it was touch and go with the airport baggage handlers. To our pleasant surprise, they decided to tape up our bikes even more, assuring us that removing the front wheels was OK, to fit in the small cargo hold of their plane. Lao Airlines is getting to be my favourite airline on this trip. They’ve had some bad press in the past, what with certain embassies forbidding their staff to travel on Lao Airlines. In their defence, their track record claims ‘no crashes since 2000′ You could also find fault with bad weather and an overused Chinese made plane for that excuse. My one bad experience back in 2005 had the pilot looking for holes in the clouds, to see his way before landing in Luang Prabang. Steep, tight banking, much like cornering too low around a blind corner on a mountain bike. Scary but fun at the same time.

The low level 40 minute flight into Luang Prabang gave us great views of the mountains that we would ride across over the next week. As this was the start of the high tourist season, the plane had just one empty seat out of sixty.

We, or rather I have planned a whole 4 nights in Luang Prabang as there is this side trip north to Nong Khiaw that I’ve always wanted to do, cycle 140 kms upriver and return to LP by a slow boat. So I’ve decided to split the 4 nights in to 2 parts.

It’s easy to spend up to a week here, lounging around, playing tourist with maybe a folding bike or two. With serious bikes like the LHT, we’re aiming for an ambitious 140 km first day, until the bikes get tired and it’s songtheaw time. That’ll be the day after tomorrow.

Today and tomorrow we’ll take it easy, have a look see across the other bank of the Mekong, generally temple out ourselves and heat up our cameras’ batteries. With the weather getting cooler, we got our lights on and even rode at night. Some nicer restaurants were out of town and walking back would be very tedious after a nice meal.

Our little guest house, the year old Oudom Souk, one out of a hundred or so in town, is chock full of touring bicycles, and even a Burley tandem. Most or the riders are older French folk on a cycling tour. They leave the next morning with a van sag wagon and small pick up, down Route 13, the very beaten path for bike tourists in northern Laos, ending the ride in Vientiane, about 420 kms away.

Day's end along the Mekong at Luang Prabang

From Thailand to Laos: Across the Friendship Bridge

Thursday November 6, 2008, 34 km (21 miles) – Total so far: 34 km (21 miles)

Old Nong Khai

After a heavy rainstorm last night that threatened to blow off all the roofs in Nong Khai, we awoke to beautiful clear blue skies and intense UV. Messing about with sunblock was a small price to pay for a great day out with the camera and our short ride into Vientiane. Last night’s rain was the first and only wet weather we had on this trip. Bring on the blue skies and sunshine, Laos. We managed 10 kms seeing the town, plus the 24 or so kms into Vientiane.

Then there’s the bridge, built with Aussie help ie. funds, and opened by then PM, Paul Keating in April 1994. The bridge, all 1200 metres of it, is narrow. Cars overtaking bicycles are OK. Trouble is, though Laos being the fourth poorest country on earth, has increasing numbers of Hummers, Land Cruisers and other large SUVs. Thais travel in huge vans and buses across the bridge. The rail line in the center of the bridge now extends into Lao territory, and is set to operate by March 09.

Official policy on cycling across the bridge is confusing at best. Mostly ‘NO’ if you ask. The Lao side has bicycle lanes at it’s immigration. The Thai side doesn’t, and many a cyclist have been frowned upon entering the Thai side of the bridge by bike. We hustle across Thai immigration and customs and make a run for it passing by some Thai customs ladies tucking into lunch. The one that wasn’t eating raised her voice. We smile and keep pedaling. I’m on official duty taking pictures for CGOAB and bike on a bus is not an option.

Sharing a romantic evening with Lonely Planet finds by a fountain

We get into town for a late lunch at Joma Bakery. Heavenly mushroom quiche and iced cappuccino freeze. Met up with Joma’s country manager, Miss Nang, a Bangkok native who made bookings on our behalf on Lao Airlines, for the next day’s flight to Luang Prabang.

Most of the town’s hotels were full, seeing that Nov 12 was the date for the week long That Luang festival at the country’s most revered temple, That Luang.

KG kept an eye on our bikes parked outside. Alvin took care of the air tickets, while I rode off to find a room for the night. Errands done in 40 minutes or so.

Lao Airlines does accept on line bookings, when their website is working, and Alvin has Church contacts with Joma’s CEO owner. We are well connected, and by the end of the trip I have 7 Joma reciepts in my wallet. www.joma.biz

We check into the Mali Namphu guesthouse whose rates have inflated 75% in 20 months. Alvin remembers it best for an episode in which his friend lost a helmet whilst the bike was locked in the hotel’s elegant Parisian inspired courtyard.

‘Aggro Paul’ or easily aggravated Paul, now a sheep breeder in Queensland, Australia kicked up such a ruckus at the lobby until a sheepish (pun intended) hotel employee brought out the said bike helmet and placed it back onto it’s rightful owner’s handlebar. Though it was just a $20 knock off Giro helmet, the lesson to be learnt here is, not to mess around with all 6 ft 2 inches of Aggro Paul.

Vientiane

Progress, development, aid, wealth…fourth poorest country on earth…what’s that again??  Laos is developing at a frantic pace. Physical changes are more prominent in the towns and cities. Lots of changes year on year. Once open sewers waiting to swallow tourists whole are now nicely paved brick walkways fronting fashionable boutiques. At the two M Benz showrooms that I was welcomed into, there was icy cold Perrier and attentive, pretty salesgirls. It also helps when you dont have a muddy proletariat bicycle, any kind of bicycle parked outside!

Nothing wrong with development though but at this bewildering pace, the haves and have nots are going to be spread wider apart.

Having no plans nor detailed map, I followed heavy traffic north for 20 kms out of town before turning off into this small side road. A grid of off road paths around green rice fields and fishing ponds. Amazing, cycling off road minutes away from a four lane highway. Even in these fields there were small pockets of luxury housing, huge villa style homes in gated communities. At least there were these dirt roads to drive one’s SUV home to. It was quite refreshing having no plan and heading beck to Vientiane was as easy as finding the main highway and backtracking to the river. After 60 kms or so, I found myself at PVO Vietnamese Food again. After a quick wash I plonked myself down just in time to see some spanking new Honda Bajas being delivered to PVO – these were rentals!

This was my alarm clock every morning. Loud booming bass speakers at 6 am. So loud that an Australian couple I spoke to had to change rooms, away from the river view ones.Might as well have Ricky Martin or Carlos Santana play on that stage. You could hear them streets away. No point fretting. Went down with my camera and took revenge by making one and all feel very self conscious. On second thought, Carlos isnt a bad idea at all.

If you thought sight seeing on a slow bicycle would get you into greater contact with your surroundings, walking is even better.

No sudden stops or U turns when a photo op comes up, and trying to keep on the ‘wrong’ right side of the formerly French road. Negotiating roundabouts and fast corners full of traffic on the first day was a little scary, so I just followed the crowd. Navigation on or off the bike became as easy as memorizing where the Mekong was. By the third day, I had cycled most of the town, so zero kms on the bike today. Another upside to endless walking? $3 foot massage, right after dinner.